OWLS 253 



sound when some Chickadee ventured too near to vent his 

 indignation. 



I have occasionally heard the old birds but more often the 

 nearly fledged young utter a peculiar whining cry much like 

 a very young puppy, and they also express their feelings by 

 hissing and snapping their bills. 



In southern California I have often found several of these 

 birds roosting together in one live oak tree, and have found 

 four or five nests in a small thicket of willows along a stream. 

 Here in Maine they are not so social, and I have never seen 

 more than one in a place, save for pairs and the young in the 

 nesting season. The eggs are three to seven in number, pure 

 white and somewhat glossy. The nests are made of sticks 

 and twigs lined with cedar, hemlock or other bark and some 

 feathers. 



In the west they appear to occupy deserted Magpies nests 

 or make nests of their own, while in the east they usually re- 

 make a Crow's nest. The eggs are very often in varying stages 

 of incubation from fresh to nearly hatched, and this was 

 the case both in California and the east in many cases. 

 About May first is the time for eggs in Maine. A set of four 

 measure 1.69 x 1.34, 1.66 x 1.32, 1.65 x 1.29, 1.65 x 1.32. 

 They feed principally on mice and small mammals, very sel- 

 dom on birds. 



367. Asio accipitrinus (Pall.). Short-eared Owl; Marsh 

 Owl. 



Plumage : tail banded with buff and fuscous ; above fuscous, margined 

 with buff ; ear tufts rudimentary ; below whitish to buff, streaked with 

 fuscous. Wing 12.00 to 13.00 ; tarsus 1.70. 



Geog. Dist. — Cosmopolitan ; found throughout North America at one sea- 

 son or another : breeds locally from latitude 39° and Virginia northward. 



County Records. — Androscoggin; fairly common resident, (Johnson). 

 Aroostook; taken in the county, (Knight). Cumberland; moderately com- 

 mon resident, (Brown, C. B. P. p. 20). Franklin; rare resident, (Richards). 

 Hancock; resident, (Dorr). Knox; migrant, (Rackliff). Oxford; rare, 

 (Nash). Penobscot; very rare resident, (Knight). Piscataquis; one taken 



